Posted on 04/10/2024 3:01:43 PM PDT by GulliverSwift
Many years ago, I read a quite rational atheist commenter online who said that while he didn’t believe in God, he feared what a de-Christianized West would bring. Now, a couple of decades later, he’s perhaps joined in that sentiment by the man who’s probably the world’s most famous living atheist, evolutionary biologist Richard Dawkins.
On British talk-radio station LBC recently, Dawkins admitted that he enjoys living in a Christian society and considers himself a “cultural Christian.” While this isn’t exactly a road-to-Damascus moment, it’s nonetheless quite an admission from a once staunchly militant atheist most famous for writing the 2006 book The God Delusion.
Yet Dawkins now exhibits the have-your-cultural-cake-and-eat-it-too delusion. His contradiction, however, is many people’s — and his story holds a lesson we ignore at our peril.
As The Telegraph’s Madeline Grant wrote last week in “Christianity’s decline has unleashed terrible new gods”:
Before we start preparing the baptismal font, it’s worth noting that Dawkins says he remains “happy” with the UK’s declining Christian faith, and that those beliefs are “nonsense”. But he also says that he enjoys living in a Christian society. This betrays a certain level of cultural free-riding. The survival of society’s Christian undercurrent depends on others buying into the “nonsense” even if he doesn’t...
Grant proceeds to say that the biologist is getting closer to admitting that the “New Atheism” has been, in important respects, a terrible mistake. “First, in its almost touching naivety that a post-Christian world would give way to a values-neutral space, rooted in reason,” she writes. “Second, in its semi-adolescent diagnosis of Christianity as a retardant upon cultural and intellectual progress.”
(Excerpt) Read more at thenewamerican.com ...
Even those who believe themselves to be ‘logical’, like scientists and researchers, can’t see how illogical atheism is.
To believe that there is no God, is illogical, since, to be someone that denies the existence of God, you must first have proven that there is no God. You can’t believe something that can’t be proven, and there is nobody that can prove that there is no god.
The existence of God, whatever the religion, is obvious. There is nothing in existence, living or otherwise, that can exist without having been created. A creator is all powerful, and all that is came from a creator. Even the non-believers can’t deny that fact.
Diaz describes the "bloodlust" of the natives. Yet he came from Europe, where institutional practices of human torture existed openly at the time.
It's hypocritical to condemn a behavior in one group, yet ignore it when practiced by another.
from the website dictionary.com:
bloodlust; or blood lust; [ bluhd-luhst ], noun
eagerness to engage in violence or bloodshed
Human sacrifice practiced by the natives in this instance is no different - morally - than the practices of torture prevalent at the same time in Europe. Brutal, barbaric, inhuman.
European explorers wrote often of the savages they encountered in the western hemisphere, completely ignoring the savagery that existed in Europe at the time.
Most people will not have the law written in their hearts unless they learn it from society. This is why almost all people who join faithful congregations nowadays are people who were raised in some other, less-faithful Christian tradition. I have seen zero atheists or people raised non-religious joining my local congregation. Very few converts to begin with, unfortunately.
Atheists are without excuse
Before a HOLY GOD.
.
They have one hope
Suicide.
divine punishment isn’t really part of the Shinto or Buddhist traditions and Japan is extremely low crime.
.......................................
That’s because if a Japanese brings dishonor or shame they cease to exist.
One nit the Spanish were in meso America
Otherwise spot on
No doubt the rules for the superbowl were determined by common sense. Changed and modified over time to arrive at what we have today. However if the umpire were to be removed or counted as irrelevant then “common sense” would not stop the game degenerating into a free for all.
“The Gods of the Copybook Headings will with terror and slaughter return.”
“I wonder if any of them will ever come to the conclusion that the benefits they enjoy of a Christian culture give validity to the claims of Christ.”
Great point! As I’ve said before on other threads, the Bible is a manual on how the earth and humans (and God) works. The 10 Commandments form the “Quick Operation” of the manual written by the Creator. If we all could live like Christ lived, the world would be a much better place. Not perfect due to natural sin which is also apparent in nature, but better.
Pascal was pretty smart and, amazingly for a Frenchman, had some common sense. Dawkins should have paid attention to Pascal’s wager.
In Japan's case it is the Japanese aristocrats that provide retribution as a substitute for God.
There is a saying in Japan.
"The nail that sticks out gets hammered down."
Wise words and excellent prose.
L
They will realize that from a ‘scientific’ and objective viewpoint, the lessons of the Bible are incredibly valuable. The Truth is just that, and most of us know what it is, innately. (I’ll add that Proverbs is essentially a “Guidebook for Living as a Human Being”.). We can deny our reality, but we cannot deny the consequences of doing so. Or so I’ve heard...
Of these people, less than 1% (. 07%) of inmates identify as atheists, much lower than the percentage of atheists in the non-incarcerated population.
How is THAT supposed to be HELPFUL!?!
and the Nephiites and Lamanites; too!
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